Purpose After Polman: How the Poster Child for Purpose Paved the Way for Future Leadership

Last month, when news broke that Unilever would begin the search for Paul Polman’s successor, it sent shockwaves through the business world. As the poster child for Purpose in business, what would this mean for the future of businesses that aim to grow while prioritizing sustainability?

Over the years, Polman has been one of the most vocal, determined and passionate advocates for businesses embracing their responsibility to do more than simply make a profit. As he famously said at the launch of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan: “We cannot choose between [economic] growth and sustainability — we must have both.”

The data to prove his vision is compelling. Under Polman’s guidance, Unilever has thrived by staying true to its Purpose, realizing tremendous business benefits in the form of efficiencies, growth and employee engagement and retention. The company has attained effectiveness through eco-efficiency measures in its factories, resulting in avoided costs of over €700 million — its waste program alone contributed to cost avoidance of around €250 million. Its portfolio of Sustainable Living brands has grown 50 percent faster than the rest of the Unilever business — and delivered more than 60 percent of Unilever’s overall growth in 2016. And employees are liking what they see — 90 percent of employees are proud to work for Unilever and the company is the number-one most searched fast-moving consumer goods brand on LinkedIn.

But let’s get to the hard numbers: shareholder return. Since the launch of the Sustainable Living Plan, Unilever has seen a 290 percent total shareholder return. In fact, financial experts in 2017 are projecting the Unilever stock may actually outperform the FTSE 100, with EPS that is forecasted to rise at an average rate of 15 percent per annum over the next two years. This may explain why 70 percent of shareholders have held their shares more than seven years — and 60 percent of the company’s top 10 shareholders have held shares for five years or more.

Although Polman has certainly made a strong case for Purpose, he is not alone in the journey. As the CEO begins to think of life after Unilever, let’s take this time to examine — and celebrate — other leaders in the journey toward better business with greater impact:

Larry Merlo, CEO, CVS Health*: Just three years into his tenure as CEO, Merlo made a landmark decision — to eliminate tobacco sales in all CVS Health stores — at a potential loss of $2 billion in revenue. The company explained that selling cigarettes conflicted with its Purpose of helping people on their path to better health. The move paid off in a big way — CVS Health announced a nearly 10 percent increase in revenue following the announcement. And, on the one-year anniversary of the decision, in states where CVS has a market share greater than 15 percent, there was a 1 percent decrease in cigarette pack sales, totaling 95 million fewer cigarette packs sold overall. More recently, CVS Health has been at the forefront of tackling the opioid crisis by limiting opioid prescriptions to a seven-day supply.

Eileen Fisher, Founder and President, EILEEN FISHER: In 2015, Eileen Fisher launched a bold new vision for her company: Vision2020 — to attain 100 percent sustainability in its practices by the year 2020. The effort includes progressive elements such as not only being carbon neutral by 2020, but carbon positive, and collaborating with others in the industry to adopt bluesign® textile technologies. While acknowledging the effort would not be easy, the campaign hinged upon the simple but aggressive rallying cry, “No Excuses” and ladders up to Fisher’s belief that “we can use business to change the world, literally.”

In Polman’s own words to the Financial Times in September 2016, he ruminated: “It shouldn’t be difficult to find someone better than me.” And while many in the industry may disagree with his sentiment and be sorry when one of the biggest heroes in corporate responsibility moves on, the bench strength of Purpose-driven CEOs runs deep and wide.

*Cone client

With over a decade of experience in strategic public relations, project management and media relations, Aaron advises corporate and nonprofit clients on how to effectively communicate with diverse stakeholders, articulate their vision, and build brand awareness. He has worked with… [Read more about Aaron Pickering]

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Annie Dillard

Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.

Jane Addams

“[T]he good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

Albert Einstein

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. "

Buckminster Fuller

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete"

Dr. David Hawkins in “Power vs. Force”

“In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me.”

Deepak Chopra

“Every problem that we face right now, whether it’s war, terrorism, social injustice,economic disparities, or global warming, would be creatively addressed by our collective consciousness moving to a new level.”

Professor Tom Regan

“The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it. What happens to them matters to them. Each has a life that fares better or worse for the one whose life it is.”